He was working on sort of a summer internship in a University lab. The PI has several potential projects out there, all related to various interests in the lab.
as a summer intern, this is very much the PI's project, and the kid--who is certainly smart, no doubt about it. And did good work--picked up this project b/c it was interesting to him.
it's a matter of what resources are available--the PI has been wanting to look at these models, just not enough people in lab, at the time, to tackle it. The kid probably never saw this software before working in the lab, so I imagine a lot of it was learning on the spot--not to mention much of the general book knowledge.
Typically, these can be junk projects, or a good idea that never pans out. Occasionally, something will work out and lead to further investigations, as with the project that this kid chose.
It's very likely that he also took over halfway through--lots of preliminary work done by an undergrad or previous grad student doing a rotation to feel out the lab.
Putting together a poster is a solid start, meaning there is certainly some good data. Publishing is a long ways off, though.
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